Entain CEO “Private Jette” Nygaard-Andersen Jets Off Into The Corporate Sunset

Today as she jets off into the corporate sunset; trailing queries of “was she pushed or did she jump”, who cares; the markets have responded positively to the departure of Entain CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen, long-predicted in these pages.

Shares in the FTSE-100 UK gambling giant–in 40 percent freefall since August–bounced back some five percent to 842.40 GBX in early-morning trading on the London Stock Exchange.

In many ways the defenestration of Dane Nygaard-Andersen–the first woman to head a publicly-listed British gambling company, who was quickly dubbed “Private Jette” by staff at Entain, for her love of travelling on private jets–on the unluckiest, 13th, day of the month couldn’t be more apposite.

But will it put an end to what is effectively the longest running scandal in the UK gambling industry?

It certainly closes a chapter.

But the book is far from written.

And the gambling industry can now expect the mother of all takeover battles to commence shortly in the New Year, with American whale MGM Resorts International surely set to make (another) bid for Entain, the holding company and owner of storied British brands Ladbrokes Coral, bwin, PartyPoker, Sportingbet, et al.

By all accounts relations between the BetMGM joint-venturists are already strained; with MGM choosing to launch the brand in the UK earlier this year not with Entain but their new acquisition LeoVegas.

Killing

Both MGM and leading US sportsbook DraftKings have made prior bids for Entain, valuing the company well above its current stock level. But these offers were roundly rejected.

Meantime, active disquiet by Entain’s US shareholders has also significantly contributed to the fevered atmosphere of crisis swirling around the British gambling giant.

Nygaard-Andersen was brought onboard the troubled Entain ship of state by Chair of the Board, Barry Gibson, on January 21, 2021, to steady the liner amid a corporate scandal that threatened the very integrity and existence of the company itself.

Entain was being investigated by British tax and prosecution authorities over historic corporate malfeasance–and claims of corruption and money laundering in Turkey by one of its local subsidiaries–when it was operating as GVC.

This issue was indeed settled–just last month–under Nygaard-Andersen’s leadership.

But at £585.5 million, with an additional £20 million donation to charity, it turned out to be one of the biggest corporate raps in history.

The Dane certainly cleaned-up Entain’s act, moving the Omnichannel permanently away from the gambling world’s enticing grey markets, but in the process she arguably over-paid for a string of Central European acquisitions, most controversially Poland dominant STS Holdings.

That’s the killing, deciding, charge laid before her by Entain’s US heavy-hitter stakeholders.

She leaves–no doubt, on a private jet plane–forever associated, unfairly, with Entain’s biggest corporate scandal — but clutching a newly-acquired bundle of company shares as recompense.

From sell, sell, sell; it’s buy, buy, buy.

The race for Entain is on, on, on.